Statewide gas prices hit high; likely to rise

Southern Californians endured "Carmageddon 2" last week only to run head-long into "Gasmageddon" after the cost of gasoline hit a record high Friday.

The previous statewide average record high of $4.58 a gallon on June 15, 2008, fell Friday when the price hit $4.59 a gallon for regular, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.

And the worst may not yet be over.

"Prices at retail stations have skyrocketed in the last few days across all of California," DeHaan said.

"The increases come on the heel of various refinery issues, seemingly triggered by ExxonMobil's Torrance refinery suffering a power issue earlier in the week. According to Exxon Mobil, the refinery in question has come back online, and retail prices may peak in the next few days."

The steady hike has left many drivers, trucking companies and businesses worried about what seems temporary will cause a lot of damage.

"This is definitely not helping the situation with the economy, it's definitely making things worse," said Dan Boaz, president of AirFreight.com.

"It increases the shipping cost, because in turn, we have to increase the rate to cover the loads, and it's even worse for the drivers."

The Long Beach-based expedited trucking and air freight company works with about 11,000 drivers throughout the country and back in 2008 they lost a lot of drivers because they "just couldn't afford it."

"When the economy cuts down there aren't a lot of loads out there, so truckers turn in their equipment," Boaz said.

"The entire industry took a major hit and as these guys try to get back into it and these fuel prices go up, it really affects them."

Valerie Liese, owner of the Ontario-based Jack Jones Trucking, said everyone will have to increase their fuel surcharge and in the long run it's going to cost the consumer.

"We're getting charged more for fuel, and we have to up our prices, so we have to charge our customers," she said.

"They have to up their prices to the end consumer, no matter if it's produce, clothes or house-hold items, everything is going to go sky high."

But the breaking point came when employees at Costco stations were forced to close late Wednesday and Thursday and tell drivers they ran out of fuel.

On Friday, Costcos in Simi Valley, Northridge, Alhambra, Azusa, Montclair, Rancho Cucamonga, Chino Hills and San Bernardino still had gas.

Montclair and Fontana Costco stations were shut down since about 8 p.m. Wednesday, but Montclair resumed pumping gas on Friday.